This module explores the role of food in delivering the objectives of sustainable development. Through the prism of food, the module addresses key critical questions on resource shortfalls, environmental pressures and social development. Drawing on the perspectives of different actors in the food chain –producers, retailers, consumers, regulators and campaigners, the module explores the scope for (and the limits to) the development of food systems that promote sustainability outcomes, with a focus on both developing and developed countries. The module has a theoretical and empirical focus on food production, retailing and consumption and on the different sustainability dimensions and discourses (including competing quality attributes and the role of different policy actors in food governance).

1. demonstrate in-depth knowledge of how and why socio-economic development and environmental integrity are relevant in food production, consumption and disposal; 

2. demonstrate a critical understanding of why food origins, production methods and consumption patterns are at the forefront of debates on sustainable development;

3. appreciate and systematically understand the different adjustments actors in food chains are making in order to align their role and actions to the new issues, policies and practices surrounding sustainable development;

4. critically consider the extent of these changes; and

5. evaluate the potential impact of them on academic debate and assess the prospects of sustainable food systems in practice.

    

The module involves the following methods of learning and teaching:

• Traditional lectures are the principal vehicle for the presentation of central issues and the current debate around them. They also provide an opportunity for questions and open discussion
• Seminars will be organised every week to discuss assigned readings that are relevant to the topic covered in class
• Guest speakers will be invited to deliver lectures and engage in critical discussions with the students –with a view to enhancing their understanding of policy/practice-led debates on sustainable food systems
• ‘Live’ project work affords an opportunity to develop problem solving skills and presentational skills.

1. Subject-related skills.

1. critically discuss and/or challenge theoretical assumptions;
2. evaluate policies - both specifically designed or having an indirect effect - affecting the chosen issue/theme;
3. assess strategies and programmes adopted in practice.

1. Transferable skills:
2. Problem definition
3. Written, oral and graphic communication

4. Creative and efficient group work and project management

5. Synthesis and application of knowledge to practice

    

1. Values and attitudes:

2. know and distinguish radically different families of guiding principles in food systems;

3. appreciate the relevance of geography and planning for people, particularly as relevant elements in the trust-building process between producers, distributors and consumers;

4. acknowledge sustainability issues related with food chains and appreciate the ecological value of food;

5. reflect systematically upon what has been learnt in theory and apply it to a project, and its implications for personal development and further training.

The essay will help students to gain the theoretical and policy knowledge and skills needed to achieve the five learning outcomes listed above. The project work will ensure an empirical understanding of the issues surrounding the debate on local food and sustainable development. The project work will also prepare students who intend to pursue a career in this area to the challenges of research team work (see transferable skills). The short essay will enable students to critically reflect on the potential and pitfalls of designing, organizing and carrying out team-based empirical research on food.

Essay - 50% 2000 words
Team Presentation - 40% 20 minutes
Short Essay - 10% 500 words

The opportunity for reassessment in this module

Students are permitted to be reassessed (usually once) in a module which they have failed, in line with course regulations. The reassessment will usually take place during the summer.

Week 1: Sustainability in the Food System: Introduction

Week 2: Sustainable Urban Foodscapes 1: Context, Policies and Strategies.

Week 3: Sustainable Urban Foodscapes 2: Encouraging Sustainability through the Public Canteen

Week 4: Sustainability in Food Production 1: Competing Paradigms

Week 5: Sustainability in Food Production 2: Competing Paradigms

Week 6: Greening the Grocers: Supermarkets, Globalization and the Low-carbon Economy

Week 7: Sustainability and Food Retailing: Farmers’ Markets, CSA and Solidarity Purchasing Groups

Week 8: Addressing Sustainability in the Context of Food Security

Week 9: Rethinking Urban-Rural linkages through Sustainable Food Systems

Week 10: Students’ Presentations

Blay-Palmer, A., Sonnino, R. and Custot, J.  (2016) A Food Politics of the Possible? Growing Sustainable Food Systems through Networks of Knowledge. Agriculture and Human Values, 33, 1: 27-43

Goodman, D., DuPuis, E. M., & Goodman, M. K. (2012). Alternative Food Networks: Knowledge, Place and Politics. Oxon, New York: Routledge.

Hattersley, L., & Dixon, J. (2012). Supermarkets, food systems and public health: Facing the challenges. Food security, nutrition and sustainability, 188.

Jones, P., Comfort, D., & Hillier, D. (2007). Marketing and corporate social responsibility within food stores. British Food Journal, 109(8), 582–593

Lang, T. & Barling, D., 2012. Food Security and Food Sustainability: Reformulating the Debate. The Geographical Journal, 178,313-326

Marsden, T. (2012). Sustainable place-making for sustainability science: the contested case of agri-food and urban–rural relations. Sustainability Science, 1-14.

Marsden, T. and R. Sonnino (2012) Human Health and Wellbeing and the Sustainability of Urban-Regional Food Systems. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 4 (4): 427-430

Morgan, K. (2009). Feeding the city: the challenge of urban food planning. International planning studies, 14(4), 341–348.

Morgan, K.J. (2010) Local and Green, Global and Fair: the Ethical Foodscape and the Politics of Care. Environment and Planning A, 42 (8): 1852-1867

Morgan, K. J., T. Marsden, and J. Murdoch (2006) Worlds of Food: Place, Power and Provenance in the Food Chain. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press

Morgan, K. J. and Sonnino, R. (2008) The School Food Revolution: Public Food and the Challenge of Sustainable Development. London: Earthscan

Pothukuchi, K., & Kaufman, J. L. (1999). Placing the food system on the urban agenda: The role of municipal institutions in food systems planning. Agriculture and Human Values, 16(2), 213–224.

Raynolds, Laura T. (2000) "Re-embedding global agriculture: The international organic and fair trade movements." Agriculture and human values 17.3 : 297-309.

Rayner, G., Barling, D., & Lang, T. (2008). Sustainable Food Systems in Europe: Policies, Realities and Futures. Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition, 3(2-3), 145–168.

Selfa, T., Jussaume, R. A. and M. Winter (2008) Envisioning Agricultural Sustainability from Field to Plate: Comparing Producer and Consumer Attitudes and Practices toward 'Environmentally Friendly' Food and Farming in Washington State, USA. Journal of Rural Studies 24: 262-276

Sonnino, R. (2009) Quality Food, Public Procurement, and Sustainable Development: The School Meal Revolution in Rome. Environment and Planning A, 41 (2): 425-440

Sonnino, R. (2010) Escaping the Local Trap: Insights on Re-localization from School Food Reform. Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning, 12 (1): 23-40

Sonnino, R. (2016) The New Geography of Food Security: Exploring the Potential of Urban Food Strategies. The Geographical Journal, 182, 2: 190-200

Watts, D. C., Ilbery, B., & Maye, D. (2005). Making reconnections in agro-food geography: alternative systems of food provision. Progress in human geography,29(1), 22-40.

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